Every MSP owner needs a little help with sales and marketing to take their business to next level. But investing in a marketing and sales automation tool becomes a difficult decision to take when you are faced with too many choices.This whitepaper tells you exactly what you should be looking for when seeking additional help.

1. MUST-HAVE
SALES TOOLS
FOR EVERY MSP
www.mspadvantageprogram.com

2. MUST-HAVE
SALES TOOLS
FOR EVERY MSP
Must-have sales tools for every MSP 02
As the owner of an MSP business
your hands are already full. You
are in charge of your clients’ IT
infrastructure. You are their IT
watchdog, making sure there’s
not a single blip on the “trouble
radar.” If some issue does
come up, you are on it before it
escalates. As a result, you have
a lot going on and while you
want to build your MSP business,
you are strapped for time. Most
likely, you have already done your
homework and know that there
are a lot sales and marketing
tools available out there in the
market, but you are not sure
which ones really work. To make
your work easy, we have put
together an e-guide that lists
the key marketing and sales
enablement tools that every MSP
should invest in.

3. 360-DEGREE LEAD VIEW
LEAD SEGMENTATION
LEAD SCORING
The first rule of sales is that
you should have a clear
understanding of your prospect’s
concerns. Unless you understand
what your prospects are looking
for, you won’t be able to present
your services effectively to them.
Consequently, investing in a sales
enablement tool that offers you a
After getting a complete view of
the prospect, the next important
step is to act on that information.
A good lead segmentation
tool will classify the leads into
meaningful sectors for you, based
on pre-set conditions of your
choice. You can have your leads
segmented automatically for you
on the basis of their position in
Having a lead scoring mechanism
in place helps you prioritize your
sales efforts. A lead scoring
tool will grade your prospects
based on multiple pre-defined
parameters tied to their attributes
and behavior. This will provide you
with an accurate score for your
complete, 360-degree view of the
prospect makes sense. Make sure
the tool offers you a syndicated
prospect overview across all
channels of interaction. This
includes websites, landing pages,
emails, PPC campaigns, direct
mails, etc.
the sales cycle, their industry,
their existing IT infrastructure,
or whatever criteria you choose.
The advantage of having your
leads sorted in this manner is that
it helps you chart out different
marketing and sales strategies for
each key segment--which in turn
makes your marketing and sales
efforts more effective.
leads. It also ensures that you
don’t spend your time on leads
who are not yet ready to sign a
contract with you.
03Must-have sales tools for every MSP

4. 04
LEAD NURTURING
PERSONALIZATION
COLLATERAL CREATION
Now that your lead scoring tool
tells you where each lead stands
in the sales cycle, what do you
do with leads that are not ready
to sign-up with you? Do you just
let them be while you focus on
other more important leads that
are closer to signing an SLA with
Building personal relationships
with your prospects matters a
lot in this age where the power
has shifted to the customer.
This is especially true for you
in a business where clients
must trust their vendor with
sensitive IT information. Invest
in a sales enablement platform
that helps you personalize your
When it’s just you running the
show, it’s not easy to come up
with fresh sales and marketing
content all the time. Do you
simply outsource collateral
creation like most MSPs? What
happens if you want some minor
changes done to an existing
brochure, such as a simple
pricing change or the addition
you? No. You keep in constant
touch with them so that when
they are ready to invest in the
services of an MSP, you are
directly on their radar screen. A
good lead nurturing platform will
allow you to do this hassle-free
by automating the entire process
communication with prospects.
A good personalization tool
will help you personalize your
communication on two levels—
the sales team level and the
prospect level. Personalization
at the sales team level includes
branding sales material with
personal details such as your
name and contact information,
of a new services line? Do you
go back to your designer? How
much do you end up paying each
time you do this? And how long
does it take? Plus, if you have to
customize them to suit a specific
customer proposal what do
you do? A good sales collateral
creation tool can take the load
off your shoulders by automating
for you through automated e-mail
or SMS follow-ups and lead
nurturing drip campaigns that run
in the background even while you
are busy dealing with active, hot
leads.
while personalization at
the prospect level involves
customizing the collateral for
your specific prospect. Engaging
in high-level personalization
that cuts across both print and
digital communication channels
will enable you to build a strong
personal relationship with every
prospect.
this entire process. These tools
use a template - based approach
to sales collateral creation. This
means that all your basic designs
and text will be stored in a
template format. This convenient
management system will allow
you to make modifications to
the final output you generate
using the built-in template. As
Must-have sales tools for every MSP

5. 05
a result, you gain control over
your sales and marketing assets
without having to depend on your
designer for every minor edit.
ASSET TRACKING AND ANALYTICS
MOBILE APPS
SALES PLAYBOOKS
Creating personalized sales
collateral is great. But how do
you know if they are effective?
Investing in a good asset tracking
tool will provide you with all the
insight you need to determine
how your sales and marketing
collateral is working. An asset
tracking system will bring
Handling the sales and marketing
portion of your business shouldn’t
mean having to spend your
days tied to your desk. What you
really need is an application that
will provide you with access to
your leads and sales collateral
even when you are out of office.
That way you can stay in touch
One challenge commonly faced
by MSP owners when it comes
to selling their services is “sales
talk.” What to say, how to say it
and when; three questions
objectivity to your marketing
and sales efforts by giving you
hard numbers to evaluate the
performance of your assets.
Asset tracking and analytics
will help you clearly understand
where your sales funds are being
used and the returns on that
investment. You will know the rate
with leads even when you are
not in your office. A good sales
enablement platform will allow
you to ‘go-mobile’ by offering
on-demand access to your leads
through any internet-enabled
mobile device. It will alert you
to key lead behavior such as
newsletter sign-ups, appointment
that challenge most every MSP
owner. Having a sales playbook
can help you overcome this
challenge. A playbook is an
information kit that you
of email opens, the clicks on your
PPC ads, sign-ups on your landing
pages, website visits, etc. This will
help you realize what sales pieces
work and which ones don’t. Based
on this knowledge, you can tweak
your sales campaigns and assets
for optimum performance.
requests or whitepaper
downloads so you can react
quickly even if you are away from
your desk. Plus, by giving you
cloud-based access to your sales
collateral, the tool gives you 24/7
access no matter where you are.
can use when reaching out to
your prospects. The playbook
will offer you all the information
that you need to have and share
with your prospect when making
Must-have sales tools for every MSP

6. 06
a sales call. That way you don’t
have to worry about not saying
the right thing at the right time.
Nor will you have to spend time
looking through your asset
database for the right sales
material. One-click access to the
sales playbook can make your
sales efforts more efficient and
effective.
CRM INTEGRATION
If you have a CRM system in
place, which is probably the
case, then be sure your sales
enablement tool integrates with
your CRM seamlessly. Your CRM
is your information bank as far
as data about your leads and
existing customers go. Hence
it is imperative that any sales
enablement tool that you invest
in allows for smooth flow of key
information to and from your
CRM platform.
SOCIAL MEDIA INTEGRATION
Social media serves as a good
platform for local businesses
to come together and discuss
their challenges and possible
solutions. You can win trust
and come across as a thought
leader by being active on groups
in Facebook and LinkedIn that
talk about IT challenges faced by
your prospects and helping them
troubleshoot, or by tweeting Zero
Day alerts. However, building
your brand on social media
takes consistent effort. Timely
updates across all social media
channels are not easy to make
when you are already juggling
client meetings, system upgrades
and firefighting unforeseen IT
crises. By automating your social
media marketing efforts, you
can still be active on all your
social media channels, even as
you are busy taking care of the
more important stuff. Look for
a social media automation tool
that allows you to post relevant
content across all major social
media platforms including
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,
Pinterest, Wordpress, Blogger, etc.
Social media is a great tool for
MSP lead generation and a good
social media automation tool
will help you harness that to the
maximum.
It’s time you changed the way
you look at yourself and your
business. What prospects want is
a value adding partner whom they
can count on to provide the best
possible IT advice and assistance
at the right time. And the tools
we discussed above will help you
make a smooth transition from
being the proprietor of an IT shop
to a sophisticated IT advisor.
Must-have sales tools for every MSP

7. Mindmatrix offers Channel & Sales Enablement software for direct and indirect sales
channels. Mindmatrix is the only provider of a Single Unified Platform that combines
PRM software, Direct Sales and Channel Enablement, Channel Marketing Software,
Marketing Automation software and Marketing Asset Management. Mindmatrix takes you
through every step in the sales process from lead to revenue, enabling your salespeople
and channel partners to sell more, faster.
2403 Sidney Street, Suite 150, Pittsburgh, PA 15203
Phone: 412-381-0230, Fax: 412-774-1992
www.mindmatrix.net